Chuck- you okay, buddy? This book felt very existential-crisis in the most obvious sense.
This book fell a little flat for me, unfortunately. I loved 'Bury Your Gays' for its blend of humor and horror, and I was expecting a little more of that going into 'Lucky Day'. Maybe that's on me, but I couldn't help being a little bit disappointed. The book is told from the POV of a queer woman, but the book isn't so much about her queerness as it is her literal existence (nodding, of course, to the old cliche that bisexuals "don't exist") and the randomness of the universe. It asks big questions, like "Do we have control over our own fates?" and "Is it all even worth it?" as the reader is told the story of a crooked corporate enterprise that is artificially manipulating luck.
The story was well-written, the characters three-dimensional and interesting, but that Tingle "spark" just wasn't there for me.

Thank you NetGally and the Publisher for the ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Chuck tingle dose it again and I personally think he's getting better in this genre.
The story follows a woman who is a statistics professor. Who just happens to be bisexual. Tragic things happen and she finds herself helping an government agent and things hit the fan.
This was a crazy fun read fans of Final Destination will enjoy this read.

4.5 rounded up

This was my most anticipated of the year and it did NOT disappoint! I can't say too much about it without giving it away, but I highly recommend going in blind like I did. I loved the weirdness of this, the 'events', and the existentialism of it all. I've always been fascinated about fate vs free will and it was very cool how it was all tied in. Some of the concepts felt really big and complicated to wrap my neurospicy brain around and that's my only negative but dang, I loved this. It was a lot like Bury Your Gays which is one of my favorites.

Highly recommend everyone check this one out when it releases 8/12! I cannot wait to see Chuck Tingle when he comes to Pittsburgh next month.

The core of Vera's journey is existential, not just scientific. She’s someone who lived by predictability. Her identity was wrapped in the comfort of order, numbers, patterns, and probabilities that offered a framework to understand the universe. For her, life made sense because 2+2 was always 4. It had to be. But the Low-Probability Event shattered that. Not just her life, but the very rules of reality. In a way, it's not just a catastrophe , it's a cosmic betrayal. The universe broke its contract with her, and now she's left in a world where chaos can manifest violently, unpredictably, and without reason. That’s why Vera’s arc is so compelling. This isn’t just about saving the world , it’s about reconciling belief in a rational cosmos with the intrusion of surreal, almost magical randomness. And it's through that lens that Chuck Tingle does something really profound: he explores grief, trauma, and meaning in a post-truth world, all wrapped in a genre-bending horror-thriller. In Short its about a -

A woman who believed in math faces a world that’s rewritten the equations, and the answer isn’t just wrong; it’s alive and trying to kill her.

And still, she persists. She tries to draw a line, to map chaos not necessarily to win, but to understand. That, in itself, becomes an act of faith.

This was the first Chuck Tingle book I have read and I must say it was a wild ride, one I thoroughly enjoyed!

Lucky Day was a mix of horror and science fiction. On May 21st, Vera is celebrating being the youngest statistics professor at a Chicago university. In the middle of her big celebration with her fiance, family and friends. there is a Low Probability Event. Fish are falling from the sky and other strange happenings occur which cause the death of more than 7 million people around the world, many Americans. Four years later, Vera has given up and decided that nothing is important anymore. Then LPEC agent Layne enters the picture and asks for her help. It's wild ride after that.

I can't really say more without spoiling the story. I would recommend this book. I will be reading Chuck Tingle books in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the ebook ARC.

At times silly, other times gruesome, Chuck Tingle's latest is full of compassion for characters living in a chaotic world. After a Low Probability Event occurs, millions are left dead, and stats professor Vera's life is changed forever (including a memorable scene with a chimp and a typewriter). While the plot follows Vera's recruitment by a mysterious investigative agency, the story is driven by her need to find meaning in life again and pursue justice. There's a bit of an X-Files feel to this one...if X-Files were more skeptical of police/surveillance states. Easter eggs connecting to other Chuck Tingle novels add to the fun. I found the pacing a bit too quick, and the ending somewhat abrupt -- but still had a very good time reading this one.

⭐️3.5⭐️

This story focuses on Vera, a statistics professor who survives a global disaster known as the ‘Low-Probability Event’ that results in millions dying from improbable and absurd accidents. After her survival, she struggles with the loss of meaning until she is drawn into an investigation by a government agent into a suspiciously lucky casino believed to be connected to the disaster, leading her on a journey to understand the nature of luck, chaos and the universe.

After reading and loving Bury Your Gays, I couldn’t get my hands on this book fast enough! I love Tingle’s writing and how he weaves common identity themes into his horror books. This book explores a lot of existentialism themes and highlights what it means to live in a world where you have no control over the chaos. There’s a lot of focus on grief, fate, and of course, luck.

While the story was short, the pacing was a bit jarring. One moment the chaos is overflowing, but then it abruptly stops and things start to drag a bit. I also had a very hard time enjoying the main character. Her behavior got so tiresome and I didn’t find the reasons for her nihilism to be reasonable.

Overall, I enjoyed this read, but didn’t love it like I was hoping. It’s a fun and wild fever dream and does an amazing job at showcasing Tingle’s creative range. I still recommend checking this one out for yourself if you enjoy Tingle’s writing though!

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group and NetGalley for early access of this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Chuck Tingle never disappoints. Lucky Day is full of highly unlikely but definitely possible body horror. When it's gory, it's a macabre Rube Goldberg machine reminiscent of a Final Destination installment. But it's not just about displaying crazy, blood-filled sequences. It's also about the chaotic, fucked-up events of our daily lives and how we view our simultaneously insignificant and profound existences. It's about staring down the absurd, twisted, unfair, and horrific aspects of life and determining that life is worth living because the bad is balanced out by beauty, love, joy, and miraculous coincidences.

I recommend this novel to anyone who grapples with existential dread or has ever believed their life was pointless or inconsequential.

This is probably about the level of horror that I can handle in books without starting to feel queasy. Thought that the discussions around luck, chance, fate, and order were thought-provoking and, overall, I really liked this one!

Thank you to the publisher for my DRC!

After reading Chuck’s previous works, I knew I needed to read this one. There’s something about his writing that sucks me in, no matter what the plot is. But this plot was mesmerizing. It was so unique, and terrifying on so many levels, I couldn’t put it down. It definitely ramped up my anxiety, which I both love and hate haha. And some of the body horror—oof 🤢. This was just *chef’s kiss *

4.5 stars

Chuck Tingle knocks it out of the park once again with a brilliantly done horror that is equal parts horrifying and gratifying, all while maintaining his positive messaging at the end of the book for us to leave with. I really loved the main messaging of this book, aka “love is real and everywhere and we deserve to be around to see it,” and seeing the main character go through this arc was satisfying. I was rooting for her the whole time, and I love the way biphobia is fought against in this book.

This book was also very well paced and much faster compared to the authors other works. I found myself flying through these pages and had a hard time putting this book down. My only real complaint is the main male character, as I didn’t like him even in his endearing moments, and found myself annoyed by him even when the main character was growing a friendship with him. But, the ending was still satisfying, so don’t let this drawback stop you from reading the book.

Overall a great book and I will be waiting eagerly for Chuck Tingle’s next horror.

I fear that Chuck Tingle is just not for me. This book could not hold my attention to keep me reading. I had really high hopes, but my expectations were not met.

4.5 ⭐️

Vera is a statistician and probability professor who is one of the lucky (or unlucky?) people who survives the Low Probability Event, an extremely unlikely worldwide catastrophe that left 8 million people dead in a single day. Four years after the LPE, and deeply depressed, she is recruited by a Special Agent to help prove a statistically impossibly lucky casino is connected to that fateful day.

This book was wild. And gory. And absurd. And existential. And shocking. And sad. And chaotic.

If you love Final Destination, you’d enjoy reading Lucky Day.

Fuck greedy corporations and corrupt government organizations.

Thank you Tor Nightfire for an advance copy of this book via NetGalley!

[I can’t wait to meet Chuck Tingle next month!]

The story follows Vera, a statistics and probability professor, after a disaster occurred where a day of freak accidents killed millions of people. It became known as the Low-Probability Event, and Vera lost everything that day, learning that nothing mattered anymore. But when a Special Agent approaches her to investigate the LPE, she gets a chance to make sense of a nonsensical world and stop the LPE from happening again.

I'm not sure how to feel about this book because, for one, it's not the kind of book I usually vibe with. I'm not super into absurd or existential stories, and this is very absurd and existential. I thought it was going to be more horror-leaning. And while there is gore and weird shit happening, I wouldn't say I felt fear or dread.

One thing I know for sure is that I do like Chuck Tingle's writing. He can craft a story and interesting characters. The thing is, again, I don't really like this kind of story. There were moments I enjoyed here and there, but since nothing made sense, I wasn't super engaged. I did like the core message here, that even if existence doesn't always make sense, we're here, and we matter.

Do with that what you will.

If you like weird WTF horror sci-fi esque books - this one is for you! It was absolutely absurd, a page turner and unbelievable. This is my first read by Tingles, and if I’m in the mood for some weird I’ll pick up another one of their books. No regrets, just went in totally blind with this one and had me saying WTF, a lot!

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for my review!

Vera, a former statistics analyst, is a survivor of a strange global event called "Low Probability Event" which left her mother dead and sent her into a deep deep depression because nothing means anything any more. A few years later she's visited by a government agent who is investigating an improbably lucky casino and he says Vera is the only one who can help him. Her former curiosity is peaked enough by the tidbits Layne feeds her and she agrees to help him with his investigation.

This book was BRUTAL. The gore was descriptive. My toes were scrunching, my body was cringing and I didn't eat any time I picked this one up. But I'd say for me the worst part is there's a cat that dies. Not in a gory way but the cat still ended up dead. Chuck Tingle didn't disappoint, his signature absurdness and sharp satire look at bigger topics was spot on.

This is multi-dimension sci-fi but it's not done in a hard sci-fi way. It's more of a vehicle to talk about how everything in life can mean something and small chances still are chances. Also there's a BIG focus on grief and how grief can affect a person. Even when the person you're grieving was horrible to you. Triggers for Bi-phobia. There's moments where it comes from a loved one, a gay man and there's internalized phobia as well.

I like Chuck's writing and this was another fast paced book. I thoroughly enjoyed it! This one's gore was much grosser than "Bury You Gays" gore, imo. I'll be impatiently waiting for Tingle's next book!

This had a very fun concept (death by probability) but it didn't quite gel into something that really worked for me. I'm not sure what exactly it was lacking, maybe a faster paced plot or deeper exploration of some of the explanations at the end? But I very much appreciate the author's discussion of bisexual erasure and also the themes on government oversight (or lack thereof).

Holy. Shit. To say Lucky Day is wild is perhaps one of the biggest understatements I’ve ever made about a book. It’s ludicrous. It’s horrific. It’s laugh-out-loud funny and deeply disturbing on some lizard brain level. It hooked me from the beginning and I enjoyed every page!

As a very logical person, the concept of Low-Probability Events (LPEs), especially thousands occurring en masse, is absolutely terrifying. I read the entire second chapter of this book with my jaw on the floor and then needed to take a break just to process what the fuck just happened. Who could blame poor Vera for turning into a ramen-fueled shell of a human after witnessing that?! I would’ve faired far, far worse.

I loved Vera as a main character. She’s smart & snarky, and even when she seems to have fully succumbed to nihilism, she still cares. It was easy to root for her. There is so much love and depth to this story. I found myself terrified one moment and my eyes welling up the next. Truly a spectacular read.

A type A statistics analyst loses everything in a highly unlikely scenario. Now she must go against all odds to save the world.

Audiobook Stats:
⏰: 8 hours 24 minutes
🎤: Mara Wilson
Publisher: MacMillan Audio
Format: Singular POV
I found the narrator to be clear and concise in her narration. I never had to adjust my speed and was able to listen within my typical range.

Themes:
🎲: Grief
🎲: Finding purpose after disaster
🎲: Challenging homophobia
🎲: Questioning our existence

Representation:
🃏: Logical type A female lead
🃏: Queer characters

Tropes:
💗: Alien invasion
💗: Vegas Setting

🥵: Spice: 🚫
Potential Triggers: domestic violence **check authors page/socials for full list.

Short Synopsis:
When Vera, a former statistics and probability professor, lives through a disaster that kills 8 million people in the most bizarre and improbable ways, she descends into grief and depression. Four years later special agent Layne knocks on her door and asks her to join him in trying to disprove a casino that is "Lucky" to an impossible degree statistically. in fact, he believes the casino is responsible for the death of the millions.

General Thoughts:
Type A peeps unite, this is one for you! Vera is logical and reasonable to a fault. I, being somebody who also likes to hear statistics on certain aspects of things, really found her to be endearing and comical. But in that droll very dry way that academics who are exceedingly smart, usually are. Think Sheldon!

This book is fast paced and kicks off immediately. The portion of the book where Vera lives her pre-disaster life does not last very long at all. This created a very empty feeling for me surrounding her previous life as well as her relationship with people. I feel like this made the portion of the book where Vera grieves for everything she's lost feel a little flat for me.

I do enjoy the character growth that Vera goes through during the duration of the novel. I do feel like she does a lot of self reflection and I liked the discussions surrounding grief. The existential conversations about whether or not we really exist and if anything we do has actual purpose felt so relatable. Are you reading my journal Chuck Tingle??

I was not a fan of Layne as a character in general. He felt like a mish-mash of tropes that just didn't work overly well up against Vera. An interaction between Layne and Vera surrounding biphobia felt was very unresolved. Also, it didn't really match up to how Vera dealt with biphobia earlier in the book. I really would've liked a few more discussions between Layne and Vera surrounding what it means to be dismissed as a bisexual and the inherent biphobia that runs rampant throughout LGBTQIA community.

There were parts that were really well written that mostly revolved around the violence and gore aspect in the novel. They came across as super comical and very fun, and I wish that the Vegas aspect had played more into that type of feel. I never really felt like this was a "Vegas" setting, larger than life/glitz and glam. I really wish it would've leaned more into that.

Overall, I would say this book hits the middle of the road for me, leaning more towards not one of my faves. While it had some great aspects, and I really enjoyed our main characters type A personality as well as the premise surrounding statistics and probability, there was a lot of things that didn't work for me within the setting and the overall plot line.

Disclaimer: I read this audiobook via free ALC through NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. All opinions are my own. This is my honest and voluntary review.

I loved this novel. Very fast paced read, kept me engaged the whole time. I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. Chuck always manages to make his stories inclusive and tackle important issues in a way that feels really natural.